This invention relates to food packaging components made of semi-rigid synthetic thermoplastic resins and, in greater particularity, to supporting and retaining members commonly included within plastic film wrapped packages of greasy and moist foodstuffs such as sliced bacon, ham and luncheon meats. Conventionally, consumer-sized, film wrapped packages of sliced bacon, ham slices, sliced luncheon meats and the like contain a semi-rigid supporting member or backing board on which the meat product rests within the outer film wrapper. In some cases, this interior supporting member comprises a plurality of hingedly connected panels, one or more of which may extend to partially cover the foodstuff, as is often the case in bacon packaging, or the panel assembly may be arranged to surround the food product as a band, as in the packaging of frankfurters. On the other hand, sliced ham, for example, is normally supported on a flat single panel backing board within the outer film wrapper. The constructions of this invention are equally applicable to use as interior supporting and retaining members to be incorporated within film wrapped, consumer sized units of bacon, ham, sliced luncheon meats, frankfurters and similar moist, greasy foods, whether in the form of flat, planar backing boards, as two or three panel folders or as bands. For simplicity in the following description, the invention is discussed in terms of an interior supportive packaging component of bacon packages and is referred to therein as a backing board. It is intended that this term shall include simple planar support members, two or three panel support members and bands, as mentioned above.
Sliced bacon, in particular, is commonly packed in shingled fashion on a support member or backing board of wax or polyethylene coated paperboard which is subsequently overwrapped with a transparent packaging film or placed directly in a suitable paperboard carton. The film wrapped package may be evacuated before sealing and the vacuum packed unit either marketed in the described condition or placed inside a paperboard carton for presentation to the consumer market. Paperboard, although widely accepted for this use in the industry, is strongly affected by humidity and becomes rather limp when maintained within a package having a high moisture content, as is the case with packaged bacon. The tendency of paperboard to absorb moisture also often results in a transfer of water from the packaged product to the backing board, which may occasionally leave the product short in weight and in potential violation of federal or state food regulations. Furthermore, recent regulations relating to the packaging of sliced bacon have frequently led to the cutting of apertures in the backing board for exposure of a major portion of the back side of a bacon slice to the inspection of the shopper. Such apertures have further weakened the backing board structure and made it appear excessively flimsy.